catepillars, cocoons and butterflies

Well as I already told you all, Jolee was given caterpillars by her Gam. She was so excited that we had to spend time last Monday planting a butterfly garden so that we had somewhere to release them.

Jolee adored her caterpillars from the moment that she got them.. as long as they were in and stayed in their container. As many of you know my daughter HATES bugs. She did enjoy watching them crawl around and kept asking, over and over again, when would they be butterflies. Patience is so hard a concept for a 3 year old. after about 4 days they all got into their cocoons and she was so excited. By the way watching caterpillars get into the cocoons is cool but really gross. Did you know that Caterpillars actually squeeze off the last 1/4 of their body with the back legs off. Then they ooze out this goo that then hardens around them that hardens to become the cocoon. It was really gross to watch but then again it was kinda cool too so I watched it over and over as all of then did it.... Anyway :)

After about a week , (Friday night and Saturday morning) 4 of our 5 butterflies hatched. I am not sure if hatched is the right term but you get the idea. They were very pretty and it was fun to watch them open their wings for the first time and them flap around to get them to unfold. Jolee was so excited that I took a picture of her calling everyone she knew in order to spread the good news. We decided that we wanted to release them today and that we would this afternoon. Well I fed the butterflies their sugar water this morning just before we went to the pool. I guess that I mistakenly forgot to re-zip the enclosure after that so we had a surprise when we got home from the pool. 3 butterflies in the habitat not 4. I guess one was smart enough to find the opening and he met up with our cat Rocco pretty quick. We were not sure if he was somewhere in the house or in Rocco's belly until I found a chunk of wing on the kitchen floor. My bad!

Rocco had proven himself a great bug hunter though which under normal circumstances in a good thing :)

So we quickly decided to go release the other 3 (we are still waiting on 1 to hatch as he was far behind the others). Jolee got to touch and hold them before they each flew away. Tonight we already saw one back in out garden so hopefully they will continue to stay around, since that was the whole purpose of the garden :)

Well sorry that this is such a long post but I guess there was a lot to tell!

Enjoy the pics :)

Jolee's new caterpillars hanging from the ceiling of their enclosure getting ready to get in their cocoons.

Jolee getting dirty while planting her garden

our finished garden

Jolee showing off her hard work after getting cleaned up

Jolee's first new friend to visit her garden.

The butterflies in their cocoons just before hatching

Jolee calling and making the hatch day announcements

Jolee's butterflies, one two and three

memorial day weekend

So this has been a busy but fun weekend. We went to our very first shrimp boil (which was so yummy and fun! ) , the to a BBQ in sarasota, and even had some time to relax and plant a butterfly garden this weekend.

We had so much fun getting to spend this weekend with friends and family. We saw alot of people that are so important to us this weekend which made it very special! Hope that you all got to spend som time with people that are important to you too!

All in all it was a really fun weekend.

I will post some pictures of our new butterfly garden tomorrow :)

Take care

Weekend in Georgia

Hi Everyone,
We had a great weekend in Georgia. Thank you Andrews Family.
We spent a lot of time relaxing, and fishing. Jolee had so much fun and she was so proud to catch 3 fish. She ran around like a crazy girl. She tired out the dogs, her uncles and Grandma and Papa. As you can see from the pics below, Jolee continued to be as girlie as she could. What other girl could make riding a 4-wheeler in a pink polka dot dress look that good :)

We enjoyed our weekend very much except when we got home to find that the dogs were not happy that we were gone. They were well taken care of while we were gone, but for some reason they were still not happy. Jonathan did a great job of cleaning up for us, but I still had some big time cleaning to do last night. Oh well.. No more trips for us for a while.

Hope that everyone had a good weekend. Enjoy the pics and we will talk to you soon. :)


Jolee riding on the broken 4-wheeler. She wouldn't get on the one that worked :)

Jolee ready to go out on the boat thanks to all her new gear from Papa


Daddy and Rory just relaxing

Uncle Justin helping Jolee fish

You want me to touch what ?

Jolee doing her happy dance while realing in her 1st fish

Holding up her first catch of 3 for the day. She was so proud!

Jolee checking out the 4-wheeler...she still wouldn't get on it!

The whole Family

6 months old

Hi Everyone!
Well Rory was 6 months old yesterday and is doing great. So this post will be mostly about her to celebrate her half year b-day. We had her check up today and she is growing too fast. She is now 15lbs 6 oz and 27 inches long. That is 3 lbs lighter than Jolee was at 6 months of age but a full inch longer. So Rory is looking like she is going to be taller than Jolee. It is only fitting, as I am taller than my big sister. It makes sense to me :)
Rory has also started eating some rice cereal. Which she seems to like. She is more interested in chewing on the spoon for now but she likes the first couple spoonfuls of cereal. In the weeks to follow we will slowly add some fruits and veggie puree's . Hopefully she will be a good eater like Jolee was.
Enjoy the pictures :)

almost crawling

Hi again,
Hope that you all had a nice weekend. I had a weekend completely lacking in the sleep department. Joe was out partying for his birthday Saturday night and I am not sure how, but the girls seem to know when I am by myself. Between Jolee having nightmares( not sure about what), Rory having bad gas pains (or teething, couldn't really tell) , and a regular nursing session, I got about 3 hours total sleep that night. It was awful. I didn't make it to bed till about 1 then I was up by 4, finally crawled back into bed hoping for some sleep by 6 when Jolee runs in right after me saying "good morning mommy... I'm hungry, let's go and eat" at 6:05. UGH!!! So I got right back out of bed and made breakfast for us. Then since I was up, started some laundry, and finished putting together macaroni necklaces with Jolee. It was a busy day from then on and My only thought was crawling into bed. I finally made it to bed 9 pm last night and thank goodness that both girls slept last night. Of course they did! Joe was home so they just knew they could.
How do kids do that ?? It's like babies who perfectly sleep though the making of dinner and time it perfectly to wake up just as you take your first bite of food! How do they just know ?
I have included a couple of pictures of the girls playing together and just looking cute! Enjoy and I will talk to you soon.
Rachael

time flies

Hi everyone,
Time seems to be passing so fast now that I can barely keep up with everything. I feel like I am never home anymore! Between playdates, doctors appointments, playgroups and just the normal errands I am rarely free. Did I mention that I am tired :)
Along with Jolee's playgroup and playdates, Rory now has a playgroup as well which is so cute because the babies are kinda too little to play, but they all still have fun watching and reaching for one another. Rory is getting so big. She is sitting up all on her own and she is almost ready to crawl as well. She rocks back and forth on her hand and knees and then lunges herself forward. She is just dying to chase Jolee these days. She is constantly looking for Jolee and wanting to interact with her. It's really cute. It makes me so sad to think that she is quickly putting all the baby things behind her. She barely even wants to be held , which breaks my heart a bit. She would rather be on the couch or floor with her sister. We even had to pack away the baby swing which is just a nother one of those sad milestones. Every stage is fun but I will miss the baby stage. It just passes to fast!
Jolee is doing very well also. My little drama queen is growing like a weed as well. People keep asking me if she is 4.... I didn't think that she was that tall, but maybe she will get her height from her Gam. We'll see. She is getting to the point that I am no longer enough of a playmate for her. She asks to go and play with her friends every day now. And she is such a social butterfly that she asks for a different friend every day. She has more of a social life than I do! Oh well, I guess that is bound to happen. I am lucky to be surrounded with so many wonderful moms of Jolee's friends. It makes her playdates just as much fun for me. I love where we live for that reason.
Well Today is Joe's birthday so we just got done opening presents and after Rory is done with her first morning nap, we will be off to do something fun for the day before coming home for a nice dinner. Then Joe will be off for a nice night with the boys.
I hope that you all have a great weekend and a Happy Mother's day , for those it applies to ! :)


Joleee and Rory Playing together on the couch

They were both cracking up!

Rory Playing in the pool with Daddy

Sleeping Princess. She was so busy playing that she crashed in her dress.

draft weekend

Hi everyone,
It has been a very relaxing and fun weekend. I started my weekend with a great girls night, Thanks Miranda ! I need that more often, but I was so tired after getting home after midnight. I feel old after complaining about being up past 10 but it's hard to be awake that late these days ! The girls seemed to know that I was out having fun and were mad about it. They decided to show that by taking turns getting up all night long. I think Joe and I figured that we hadn't slept more than 30 minutes at a time the whole night! who needs sleep anyway ? We hoped to get a nap in Saturday but that didn't really happen.

We started our day yesterday with lunch out on the water with Gam and Nonno in Sarasota. Jolee loved watching the boats go by while we ate . Then all of us girls went to Gee Wiz kids museum to play. Then back to Gam and Nonno's house for our annual draft party. That means a comfy spot on the couch, beer, tons of food and laughing at Joey and Jon each with laptops on while also watching the tv. Like you really need 3 different screens to tell you the same thing! Boys! Oh well... We had a great time. Thanks Gam and Nonno ! :)

By the way I am very excited that the Pats drafted Tyrone McKenzie from my Bulls ! I love to see my favorite college players go to my favorite pro team :)

Today Joey went out while Jolee was napping and got us a Slip and slide. Jolee had a blast but didn't quite understand the slide part. She liked to just prance around on it and splash around. We finally got her to slide only if we pushed her. Joe and I also got into the fun and took a few slides. Even Rory had some fun on the slip and slide. All in all it was a very fun weekend. Now I need a nap even more! The girls should sleep like rocks tonight after all the outside time !

Talk more soon

Rory chillin with Ellie waiting her turn on the SNS

Jolee Drying off after slipping more than sliding

Rory had fun splashing in the pool at the end

Me and the girls

Rory getting into the fun

Jolee all cleaned up and dry after playing